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Clear Mock Turtle Soup

A clear soup made with calf head, beef, veal, vegetables, herbs, and clarified stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Clear Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Soak the calf's head in salt and water for 24 hours, changing the water frequently.

  2. Bone the head.

  3. Tie the meat in a thin cloth.

  4. Break the bones into small pieces.

  5. Put the bones in a stewpan. Cover with cold water. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Strain.

  6. Wash the head in cold water.

  7. Return the meat and bones to the stewpan. Add the stock and 1 tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil. Skim well.

Make the stock

  1. Add the prepared vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and mace.

  2. Cover and cook slowly for about 3 hours.

  3. Strain the soup.

  4. Set the meat aside.

  5. When the stock is cold, remove the fat.

Clarify and finish

  1. Clarify with the chopped beef, veal, and egg whites.

  2. Return the clarified stock to the saucepan.

  3. Add the sherry. Add the lemon juice.

  4. Add some meat from the head cut into small pieces.

  5. Season as needed. Bring to a boil.

  6. Serve.

  7. Optionally, thicken with 1 tablespoon of arrowroot if desired.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Supplies the gelatinous meat and bones that give the soup its body and rich texture.
Lean beef and veal
Chopped and used to clarify the stock, collecting particles so the broth turns clear.
Egg whites
Coagulate during clarifying, trapping cloudy particles so they can be strained out for a clear stock.
Sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a mellow, slightly sweet flavour to the finished soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the rich stock.

The step that matters

Clarify when the stock is cold. Egg whites and chopped meat must be stirred in with cold stock and then heated gently so the proteins coagulate and trap cloudy particles; boiling too hard breaks up the raft and leaves the soup murky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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